Ban cars from Golden Gate Park! How can one enjoy the park if cars have invaded the little open space we have and endanger us?

mikesonn

#CarFreeGGP

http://karenlynnallen.blogspot.com/ Karen Lynn Allen

The Vondelpark of Amsterdam (120 acres) and the Tiergarten of Berlin (520 acres) allow no cars. The Prater of Vienna (3200 acres compared to GG Park’s 1017 acres) is so large that several streets are allowed to cross it, but there is essentially no auto circulation in the park.

Interesting tidbits: Berlin, the capital of one of the greatest car manufacturing countries in the world, has one of the lowest car ownership levels in Europe. Half of all Berlin households have no car. And in the center of Berlin there is a restaurant called “Dolores” that serves San Francisco burritos.

Anonymous

@google-cd6ac603016b207eed1e6a32f6c3abfa:disqus 100% agreed. We need to get the movement to ban cars from GGP going strong. I’m so sick of being unable to escape cars and their danger, pollution and noise, even in a park. If nothing else, we at least need to get rid of the cut-through streets (excepting 19th Ave of course) and make it so there is only one entrance (which creates a loop through the park) so that the only people in there are people actually going there. And then get rid of all free parking (another no-brainer), especially near the inner Sunset.

Anonymous

This incident happened on Tuesday night, was reported by just one news site late Wednesday morning, and I almost missed it entirely when putting together today’s headlines. One would hope that a life-threatening auto/ped collision in Golden Gate Park, at an intersection with stop signs on each leg and in which the pedestrian was most likely in a crosswalk would have been reported a bit more widely.

I’m not a betting man, but the driver stayed on the scene so if the injured party pulls through I would put my money on minimal penalties, if any.

If anyone here knows any more details or sees a follow up post please let me know.

http://sf.streetsblog.org/author/aaron-bialick/ Aaron Bialick

I have been to Dolores Burrito… it’s great if you haven’t had a burrito in months, but still not quite the same as a SF burrito, of course. The wallpaper of the Muni map of the Mission is pretty cool to see on a different continent, though: http://www.berlinerfresse.de/wp/wp-content/uploads/berlinerfresse.de/2007/06/23062007124doloresambiente.jpg

http://karenlynnallen.blogspot.com/ Karen Lynn Allen

Hi Aaron, as I said in my post, our jaws dropped when we saw the larger than life map of our neighborhood in the middle of Berlin. And yes, not the same as a true Mission burrito, but definitely better than currywurst . . .

http://sf.streetsblog.org/author/aaron-bialick/ Aaron Bialick

@KarenLynnAllen:disqus Ah, I didn’t have a chance to look at your post yet before commenting :-$ Looks like they actually changed the map a bit since I saw it.

Andy Thornley

The Lovely Tracey and I were biking home on Tuesday evening and came upon this crash ten minutes after it happened, lots of emergency vehicles and EMTs treating someone on the ground, there was a wheelchair in the road, on its back, wheels in the air, pretty disturbing. I didn’t want to get in the way of the emergency crews and checked with an SFPD friend the next morning, turns out the person in the wheelchair had been behaving in an “aberrant” manner, weaving in and out of the roadway with cars dodging him, people had already called the police a couple of times to report him before he was finally hit by a car. Not to diminish the gravity of the crash, but I score it as more of a 6th & Market incident than a JFK Drive incident . . .

94013er

I know lists are dumb and pretty much page-view fodder, but totally agreed re the Forbes ‘worst drivers’ list. Every time I go to DC I marvel at drivers’ collective ignorance of how staggeringly dangerous they are to pedestrians. Philly is the home of the infamous video showing several minutes of ZERO compliance at a stop sign. And SF at #10–well…need I say more?

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And all the while, this crackdown will better enable motorists near and far to continue, without consequences, to commit the five traffic violations that the data clearly shows us are causing the greatest harm to the most road users.
Bias, bias, bias.”